This week, we’ve been celebrating our engineering colleagues as part of National Engineering Day.
Peter Morgan is a Network Planning Manager based in Edinburgh, with 17 years of experience in the gas industry, working initially in our Connections team before moving over to Network Planning in 2010.
National Engineering Day is an ideal time to reflect on how we can use our engineering skills and knowledge towards helping the UK meet those all-important net zero goals.
It’s a subject close to my heart because one of my main responsibilities is helping ensure we continue to reduce our impact on the environment by minimising Shrinkage volumes. I really enjoy this aspect of my role as not only is it so important for our business, but it really feels like my team are making a big difference in the wider world.
What is Shrinkage?
Shrinkage refers to the gas used by SGN or lost from the transportation network. It’s made up of three main elements: Leakage, Own Use Gas and Theft of Gas.
Leakage makes up 94% of Shrinkage and is basically the gas lost from our assets, such as pipes. Gas is lost at a variety of rates, which differ depending on the asset or the material that the pipe is made from (for example, metallic pipes leak at a much higher rate than plastic pipes).
Own Use Gas is the gas we use for the operation of our assets (such as pre-heating at pressure reduction stations) and Theft of Gas… well, I think the name says it all!
Reducing our impact
As many of you will know, COP26 took place in Glasgow in November 2021. It was a landmark meeting for our shared environment, where all countries agreed the Glasgow Climate Pact, which reaffirmed their commitment to keep global temperature increases to 1.5C. Climate negotiators ended two weeks of intense talks with consensus on urgently accelerating climate action.
At SGN, we’ve been working hard for many years to reduce our impact on the environment and, following COP26, we’ve recommitted to drive our business towards net zero.
RIIO-GD1 was an eight-year price control period, where we reduced our Shrinkage by 23%. RIIO-GD2 is a little shorter, being a five-year price control period, but we have committed to reduce Shrinkage by a further 15%.
Some of the things we’re doing to reduce levels of Shrinkage include:
- pipe replacement
- investing in enhanced pressure control equipment to keep our operating pressures down
- developing new technologies to capture gas that would have been vented to atmosphere
- injecting Mono-Ethylene Glycol (or MEG) into our low-pressure networks to reduce leakage from Cast Iron and Spun Iron pipes
Almost every decision we make in SGN impacts on our environmental performance in some way.
It was a massive collective effort from colleagues across the business in RIIO-GD1 to reduce our impact on the environment by as much as we did, but we still have a lot of work to do in the coming years to continue to push our business towards net zero.
If you’re interested to know more about SGN’s progress to reduce emissions and improve the environment, feel free to have a look at our Annual Environmental Report.
